


Burn Scars

by TatteredTeddy



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Albert Wesker Lives, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:00:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28735353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TatteredTeddy/pseuds/TatteredTeddy
Summary: After the failure of the Uroboros Project, Albert Wesker is recovering from a near-death experience. His wife is recovering from it too.
Relationships: Albert Wesker/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 5





	Burn Scars

“You look like you’re healing really well, sweetie,” Kali says from behind her husband. Her fingertips gently trace over the burn scars crossing Albert’s torso, closely examining them as she does every day to make sure he’s recovering without a hitch. “Do they still hurt?”  
  
“Not anymore.” Albert still sounds just as serious as always. It’s just in the nature of the former military man and special operations officer.  
  
“I’m glad. You feeling okay otherwise?” she asks, her voice inquisitive yet calm like a nurse speaking to a patient. Of course she’s worried, she has been ever since he came home from the hospital. But this has become a routine occurrence, him letting her check over the burn scars mapping his body every night as they’re getting ready for bed.  
  
“Yes, I think so. I can’t quite tell… normal humanity doesn’t feel right anymore.”  
  
“That’s because you hadn’t been a normal human for so long. Maybe going off that injection and letting the virus’ effects wear off has been good for you.” Kali sits down on the foot of the bed and rubs her eyes sleepily. The days have felt almost too peaceful and quiet since Albert returned home. She was used to worrying about him all the time and wondering when they’d be back together in their bed. The silent joy of waking up in his arms every morning and knowing they have nothing to worry about is unfamiliar, but oh, so nice.  
  
“Maybe you’re correct.” He sighs and sits down next to her. The red glow in his eyes is no longer present. They’ve returned to the silvery shade that Kali remembered from when he was just the captain of S.T.A.R.S, when their love was brand-new and full of neatly packaged secrets. “You look like you’re thinking about something. Tell me, what is it?”  
  
“I’m still just… overwhelmed. With… with how normal everything is now, I guess. I’m not… running around trying to protect myself anymore, or watching the whole world fall apart from the other side of a security camera. That lifestyle was never really my kind of place, but now that we’re back how I always wished it could be… I’m still not used to it yet.”  
  
“I see.” Yet for the first second, he doesn’t see. This is all he knows… doing what he understands is wrong, but knowing that it’s necessary for the benefit of Umbrella, and then of himself. Kali didn’t grow up that way. She grew up as just a good girl, the long-forgotten little sibling, never able to hold a candle to her popular football star of a big brother. She was always so sheltered, because she never had the chance to get herself out there, and because her world was so placid that not a single wave of unusual activity ever crossed the surface of her vision. Just as she couldn’t fathom the idea of such a long series of chaotic things happening to her, he was still struggling to process this normalcy.  
  
“I understand. But this is where you came from, and you’re back to it again. You know what it’s like… so this time, you can teach me.”  
  
“That’s right. You’ve always been the one teaching me everything. Now I can teach you the art of enjoying a day with nothing to do.”  
  
“You see? You’re perfectly in your element here. Now, you’re not hurt either, are you? You’ve been caring for me so incessantly, I have to wonder if you’ve been hiding anything.”  
  
“I’m okay. I’m just worried about you all the time. You had a lot to recover from, you know. I mean, you still do.”  
  
Albert just sighs and shakes his head. He knows when Kali’s hiding something, and at the moment, it couldn’t be more obvious. “Are you sure there’s nothing you need to tell me?”  
  
Kali shakes her head, her eyes fixed straight down into her lap. “It’s… it’s nothing, really.”  
  
“Tell me what you’re thinking about, dear. I’d like to know.”  
  
“It’s just… when I was in the helicopter and they finally got you out of there, I was so scared for you… you’ve scared me like that before, but not this badly. You handled the Tyrant just fine, and the destruction of the Umbrella lab, but how was I supposed to believe anyone could survive a volcano, no matter how strong you are?”  
  
“I don’t know, dear. I didn’t quite think of it that way. But I understand your fear.” He wraps his arm around Kali's shoulders and pulls her in closer. “I’m safe now, and so are you.”  
  
“Mhm… we’re safe now,” Kali agrees, but her voice still sounds sad. “I’m safe with you…”  
  
“You don’t sound like you believe it.”  
  
“No, no, I do, I just…” Her voice catches in her throat and she feels the familiar sting of tears in her eyes. “I… I’m sorry, I just…”  
  
Albert seems surprised at the sudden wave of sadness that’s overtaken Kali. He knows how she is, with her tendency to fall into near-debilitating mood swings, but she hadn’t shown any signs that it was coming until just now. “What is it?” he asks.  
  
“I... I...”  
  
Her breath catches in her throat and she falls into him, her shaking arms wrapping tightly around his waist. “I’m sorry, I just… I was so scared…” she whimpers. “I still feel it now. I can’t stop feeling scared, even though you’re home safe…”  
  
Albert pulls her into a gentle embrace, still just as careful with her as he always was when his virus-enhanced strength left him with a healthy fear of breaking someone so much smaller and more vulnerable than him. “I know you’re scared. But we’re home now, dear heart. I won’t take such a risk with myself again… I’ve learned my lesson.”  
  
“Please… don’t ever do something like that again. I… I can’t just keep worrying about whether you'll be taken away from me. I just… I never want to let you go. I don’t ever want to leave your side. So just… please don’t leave me… don’t scare me like you did.  
  
You’re... you’re everything I have, Albert. You’re my whole life.”  
  
At this point in their marriage, Albert is quite used to Kali’s emotions, but this outburst stuns him into silence. He never stopped to consider how everything he did during the Uroboros Project would have affected Kali. He doesn’t regret anything he’d done, don’t get him wrong. But what he does regret is never seeing the pain in Kali’s eyes.  
  
He remembers all those years ago, when she shoved the last of her bags into the trunk of his car before climbing in the passenger seat, how empty her eyes looked, two dark endless whirlpools with no distinction between iris and pupil. She silently stared out the windshield, past the pouring rain, past the “Leaving Raccoon City” sign, down the endless interstate illuminated only by his headlights. She leaned the seat all the way back, but she couldn’t sleep until they finally stopped at a hotel and she collapsed in bed without even changing into her pajamas.  
  
And how could he forget, when he escaped the secret Umbrella research lab after T-Veronica was stopped, how she came running with ice packs and Neosporin and rolls of gauze the moment he opened the door? He had to strip down in the bathroom and sit on the floor like a child who’d skinned his knee as she carefully dressed all of his wounds. She didn’t lay her head on his chest like she usually would when she got into bed that night, because she was worried that he was still in pain and she’d only make it worse.  
  
And when he first brought Jill back to begin his experiments on her, the first thing she did was make sure that they both had warm blankets to sit under after being out in the cold for so long. He remembered her warm smile as she brought out two steaming mugs of tea, gently persuading them to tolerate each other enough to sit down for a while and defrost. Albert and Jill didn’t talk to each other, but Kali talked to both of them. Albert didn't see until he checked the security camera feeds the next morning, but that night, Kali ran off to bed crying before he could follow.  
  
And of course, of goddamn course, as the helicopter flew over the volcano and the rescue squad sent what used to be Tricell’s most fireproof equipment down to the surface, how she pounded on the window until her knuckles were bruised, until her cheeks were stained with tears and her throat was hoarse from the screaming. He barely remembered being carried back up, cocooned in a powerful shell of Uroboros, but he remembered when his defenses fell away, before he fell unconscious, all he saw was his dear Kali, rushing to embrace him, barely breathing through her sobs. He felt her collapse onto him in the last split second before his vision went black, fast asleep until hours after he arrived at the hospital. Kali sat with him there too, every moment that she could until the nurse told her she had to go. Every day, she was there with him. She knew he’d be okay, but she just couldn’t bear to be away from him for a moment.  
  
Every day, every single day, from when she left Raccoon City to when Albert was released from the hospital, Kali was scared. Albert was her home, but even she couldn’t understand what was taking place inside of her home, deep inside, his very worst inner thoughts that would bubble up to the surface during the Uroboros Project. And yet… he loved her, every day that she was scared, every time she questioned why all these horrible things had to happen to the world. He knew her fear could be held back when he held her close under the covers, and when she woke up and the first thing she saw was him. That was the promise they made on their wedding day, that promise to always be there for each other when they fell asleep at night and when they woke up in the morning. Throughout it all, neither of them broke that promise. Albert never let the will of the heroes take him down, and Kali never succumbed to her fears.  
  
“I promise I will never leave your side again,” Albert whispers to Kali. “You won’t ever have to be without me for a moment.”  
  
Kali wipes away her tears and looks up at her husband with a shaky smile. “You… you promise?”  
  
“I promised the day I married you. I would never break such a promise.”  
  
He leans down to press a gentle kiss to her forehead. A familiar gesture to both of them, not the first nor the last, but just another of many kisses to come. For the world may still be struggling to sort itself out outside the walls of this house, but Albert and Kali Wesker are perfectly sorted out, right here where they belong.


End file.
